Italian labour means business
The embattled Berlusconi administration can no longer afford to ignore the people's discontent, reports Samia Nkrumah from Rome

Lesson in integrity
Thomas Ford remembers the values and passions of a US liberal

London's new villains
Osama Bin Laden's "ambassador to Europe" was captured and arrested last week in London. The arrest is unlikely to help Britain in its war on terror but it may avert criticism that Britain is haven for Islamists, writes James Corbett

Brazilian samba
The election of Lula in Brazil will make a profound difference to much of Latin America, writes Hisham El-Naggar from Buenos Aires

A Russian tragedy
Russia's hostage ordeal has focused the world's attention on the plight of the Chechen Republic and the Russian response to its demands, reports Shohdy Naguib from Moscow

Indonesia turns inward
Bali may have sealed the political future of Megawati Sukarnoputri, writes Damien Kingsbury from Sydney

Dialogue of the deaf
Hopes for peace were rekindled when West African leaders convened in Lome yesterday to broker an Ivorian peace deal, but the warring parties were still poles apart, writes Gamal Nkrumah

WORLDWIDE PROTESTS: Organisers of the 26 October anti-war rally in Washington DC estimated that more than 100,000 protesters converged on the US capital to demonstrate against the Bush administration's projected war in Iraq --read on--

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An unidentified man and woman leave the Bull's Eye Shooter Supply in Tacoma, Washington. federal agents searching this Tacoma gun store for clues are still trying to figure out how a rifle used in the Washington, DC area sniper shootings got into the hands of suspect John Allen Mohamed